the title says it all...i'm going to have to say donald young....winning the nats at the zoo when he was 16, i was expecting much better from him

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uhh what? are you american? if so what motivated you to this thread?
Dy is not an american failure. no one is a failure in tennis based on what internet threads hyped them up to be. this a very stupid thread. OP is the biggest american failure haaa

the title says it all...i'm going to have to say donald young....winning the nats at the zoo when he was 16, i was expecting much better from him

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sure, but the guy is only twenty, he may not be the teenage prodigy we all hoped he would be, but he still has a few stages in his career to go through until anyone can call him a failure. homeboy seems like he has a good, humble head on his shoulders.

If we are going to have a thread like this the people who are in the discussion should be people who have had a full career. While Donald Young has basically floundered around almost hopelessly so far he is still relatively young in his career and still could turn himself around, even if that doesn't happen for another 4 or 5 years he could still turn into something. If I had to pick someone who had a full career my mind would leap to someone like Zina Garrison, world number 1 junior, won multiple junior slams, and then struggled big time with the pro tour and suffered a lot of nerves and pressure, and couldn't really cope. But she still made a slam final and was ranked in the top 5, and given everything that is not all bad.

Garrison came on tour with some high expectations. However she could never rise up to really challenge Navratilova and Evert when they were on top, and then as they aged out of their primes was passed by by all of Graf, Sabatini, Sanchez Vicario, Seles quickly one after another, while still being dominated by now even an older Navratilova. The biggest problems I saw with her with probably too many unforced errors, and also poor tactical awareness and shot selection. Even at Wimbledon 1990 after back to back big wins over Seles and Graf to make the final, a 33 year old Martina made her look like a fool and she also helped make herself look like a fool with some absurd shot choices and point constructions throughout the final, which led to an easy win for a top form Martina.

It probably isnt very nice to say this but through her commentary and interviews I have seen of recent years she strikes me as a rather unintelligent women and I think that led to alot of her brainless tactical play and shot selection on court which hampered her career.

I would say relative to the expectations on her as a 13-15 year old Capriati was a big dissapointment. As it turns out I dont think she underachieved since she turned out to never be as talented as it once looked like she was, and she was simply a player who began to peak very soon. Still with all the youngest ever records she was setting and how impressive she was for a 14 and 15 year old she looked like a future all time great back then.

The problem with threads like this is that they are really about who had the highest expectations/hype but didn't live up to them.. The "failures" are of course guys who didn't even make the tour..but tried. Or some kid we never heard off who had more talent then anyone but got fat eating fritos..

the title says it all...i'm going to have to say donald young....winning the nats at the zoo when he was 16, i was expecting much better from him

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so, donald young is the best young player in america, but HE'S the one who is the failure, for being the best of a rubbish bunch? strange.... maybe american tennis isn't as strong as you think- being the best player in america (behind roddick) doesn't mean much, these guys isner, querrey etc, they aren't up to much either.

Agreed. What happened to "We'll be out of Iraq in 6 months!"
And hes used more money in his first year in office than any president in his entire term. With all of Obama's plans, the debt will rise to 13 trillion.
Thank god for MA, deciding vote in the health care voting

I would say relative to the expectations on her as a 13-15 year old Capriati was a big dissapointment. As it turns out I dont think she underachieved since she turned out to never be as talented as it once looked like she was, and she was simply a player who began to peak very soon. Still with all the youngest ever records she was setting and how impressive she was for a 14 and 15 year old she looked like a future all time great back then.

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The expectations put on Capriati were so ridiculous. They acted like she was going to be the next Evert. Even if she hadn't had her personal problems, she wasn't going to dominate in the era of Graf and Seles.

Excuses, excuses. Where's all this "hope" and "change" I was promised?

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It takes a village, pal. It's called Congress. But don't ever forget how Bush did a number on us (while piling up unprecedented national debt) and then left us jobless, mired in Iraq and holding the proverbial bag while he sped back home to his plush Texas ranch. Good riddance...

Before calling anyone a 'failure' you have to a) let them finish their career and judge the whole thing and b) separate the hype from reality.

DY hasn't finished his career, he still has a least ten years, and let's all agree right now that the John McEnroe fueled hype was far from the reality. Yes, DY has 'good hands' but it is ridiculous to think that anyone could accurately judge how his game and body were going to develop when he was 9 years old. Shame on everyone in the tennis industry who fell for the hype, and possibly stunted his growth and development because of it.

Tommy Ho might be the biggest American failure, or the biggest case of early hype/early burnout (I need someone with a better memory to fill in the details). Same with Brian Barker, but he had a legitimate hip injury that took him out of the game when he was far too young. I'm sure there are other names that people who have followed the game longer than I can think of.

The expectations put on Capriati were so ridiculous. They acted like she was going to be the next Evert. Even if she hadn't had her personal problems, she wasn't going to dominate in the era of Graf and Seles.

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Yeah I agree. The thing is she was way better than Graf at ages 14 and 15, and even better than Seles at those ages. Still it just goes to show you cant accurately forecast a players potential and future just based on how good they are very early for their "age".

James Blake, but if he would have hired a coach of Gilbert's or Cahill's stature then things would be different right now. With an inconsistent game he got to #4 so with a great coach he could have been in a few slam finals.

Donald Young doesn't seem to have done anything as a pro. I wonder how often a player, who started on the tour as a young teenager and didn't do much, all of a sudden just out of nowhere started winning at great rates.

I can't think of anyone who started a career on the Tour like Young and became a great success.

I understand how he got lucky in 00, but how did he get re-elected. Cause in Canada, when we dont like what out government is doing, we kick them out, not wait until they are ineligable to rund

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In most elections, it's all about your choices. And in 2004, Bush's number one advantage was his great communication skills. He knew how to engage folks, even if they disagreed with him. A better opponent could've overridden this advantage, but John Kerry, a well-meaning Senator from the liberal state of Massachusetts, was the Democratic candidate who just wasn't terribly engaging, who seemed to be trying too hard to be everything to everyone, who didn't know how to best frame Bush's failures and who was viewed skeptically by independent voters as ultimately too much to the left.

In 2008, John McCain was a good communicator (though nowhere near as good as Bush) but he leaned more to the right than many wanted. And Obama was a masterful communicator and was able to prove to voters that he was not too liberal and not too conservative. Thankfully - and everyone could see it, too - Obama also happened to be a helluva sight smarter.

The biggest Americian Failure is Roddick Head 2 Head With Roger Federer!

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The matchup of the two are bad but Andy Roddick has been a successful tour player with a major. And he also came within a fraction of defeating Federer at Wimbledon last year. Give the guy credit, he beats almost everyone consistently except for Federer.